Boiled bacon etc

Am just back from sunny Spain and have been catching up with M. Roux and the Masterchef Proffs and Nigella (who by the way I find completly maddening and ridiculous!) - and am just finding time to blog while some brioche dough is rising. Have found myself on my own this evening having spent the day sat in front of a computer and feeling rather disheartened I thought I would try something active and new - having given up on a new yoga dvd I got out the french cookery book.

I bought this ages ago and have hardly used it. It's old. So old that I had to look up what a gill was earlier - it's 4 tablespoons by the way. It was published in 1965, us by Jean Conil and is called The French Cookery book. I love it, it smells like old books and has a pencilled in 25p in the front - bargain! Also, some handy person has scrawled in oven temp conversions and underlined some handy hints about chicken.

Anyway, being only halfway through the brioche recipe I'll hang on to write about it in case it's a disaster - which it won't be!

For now, I'll tell you about the delicious ham we had on Sunday, one of my favourite meals - boiled bacon and parsley sauce, with red cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Mmmmm. Mum's recipe of course, but they are always the best.

So, a bacon or gammon joint, smoked or unsmoked (- just never Danish). Into a tall pot with a star anise, bay leaf, peppercorns, and cloves. Water, nearly covering the meat. Bring to the boil, and then turn down to a simmer. If the piece is really big, double up the spices. Mine was just under a kg so an hour was plently - again, bigger pieces of meat take longer.

You can prep veggies here and turn on to cook when the meat comes out of the water.

After an hour, take the meat out of the water. Two choices here, cover with foil to keep warm and rest while you do the veggies. Or, glaze it.

I glazed. So, heat the oven to 200ish, and take the fat off the meat. You should be able to do this quite easily by just slipping a knife though it just above the meat. Then, mix a table spoon of honey with a couple of teaspoons of wholegrain mustard and spread over the meat. Pop this into the oven.

In the mean time, make the sauce. A simple white sauce is best starting with a roux, but adding the meat stock instead of milk. Taste the stock first, if it's very salty only use a little bit and use milk or veg water for the rest. When the consistency is thick and luscious, add lots and lots of chopped parsley and season.

The meat should come out of the oven. Rest, and then be served in thin slices.

In my opinion, this is the best meal. End of.

Oh, and for the red cabbage, give it a lot of time. Finely slice onion and soften, add the red cabbage, finely sliced, and a chopped apple (raisins too if you like). Mix it up and let it all get hot and start cooking before adding a little bit of water. Keep the lid and the heat in. Cook gently but keep it going. When it's soft, add balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and season. Let it have some more time to let the vinegar soften and the sugar dissolve.

Back to the brioche....